Environment Ohio Research & Policy Center is a 501(c)(3) organization. We are dedicated to protecting our air, water and open spaces. We investigate problems, craft solutions, educate the public and decision-makers, and help the public make their voices heard in local, state and national debates over the quality of our environment and our lives.

We should be able to power our lives without polluting our environment. We have the ability to produce and consume energy and still enjoy healthy communities — and give our children and their children a livable future. That’s why we’re calling on cities, universities, businesses, and our state governments to commit to 100% renewable energy.

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New governors are getting ready to take office in 20 states, from Florida to Alaska. As America’s newly elected governors prepare to take on their states’ biggest challenges, they should prioritize taking bold action on the greatest challenge of our time: climate change.

Today, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that the Department of the Interior has chosen the withdrawal of one million acres of land around Grand Canyon National Park from new mining claims for up to twenty years as the agency’s preferred course of action and that it would continue to protect these areas under an emergency withdrawal until the release of a final decision, expected at the end of the year. Environment America’s Anna Aurilio issued the following statement:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held a public meeting today to release the 60-day findings of the NRC task force reviewing NRC processes and regulations in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns. The review found faults in plant preparedness systems and the regulations that prescribe the extent of those systems. For example, the review highlighted the fact that ‘Severe Accident Management Systems’ are inconsistently implemented across the country. The NRC has continued its licensing and re-licensing of nuclear reactors without any new protections against disasters.

Dirty energy pollutes the air we breathe, threatening our health and our environment.
When power plants burn coal, oil or gas, they create the ingredients for ground-level ozone pollution, one of the main components of “smog” pollution. Especially on hot summer days, across wide areas of the United States, ozone pollution reaches levels that are unhealthy to breathe, putting our lives at risk. In 2009, U.S. power plants emitted more than 1.9 million tons of ozone-forming nitrogen oxide pollution into the air.

Ohio currently generates 85 percent of its electric power from coal, one of the dirtiest energy sources in existence. That makes our state the nation’s second-leading emitter of global warming pollution, costs us $1.5 billion annually on coal imported from other states, and threatens public health and the environment by releasing hundreds of thousands of tons of toxic chemicals into our air each year.

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New carbon pollution standards will help protect our health. Environment Ohio Research and Policy Center is working to demonstrate broad public support for commonsense standards to protect our environment and our health.